Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Sony made a custom PS4 controller for a gamer with cerebral palsy

A staffer made a DualShock 4 that can overcome movement disorders.It's tough to use gadgets when you have cerebral palsy-- few of their interfaces take the movement disorder into account. However, a Sony staffer went the extra mile to make sure this wasn't a problem for one gamer. When Peter Byrne wrote Sony complaining that theDualShock 4' stouchpad was difficult to use with his cerebral palsy (he'd inadvertently hit the pad and pause the game), the company's Alex Nawabimade him a custom versionof the official PS4 gamepad. The modified controller, which took 10 hours to make, disables the touchpad and uses another button to fulfill that role.

It's an extremely kind gesture by itself, but it gets better: Nawabi built a second controller just in case the first one breaks, so Byrne likely won't have to worry about asking for another favor. While this isn't the same as a full-fledged production model, it shows that it's possible to accommodate gamers' special needs with relatively little effort.